The children of Lady Manners School in Bakewell, possibly at the whim of an heroic music teacher called Mr Steadman, perform a ten minute medley of Red Dwarf music, taking in various versions of the theme tune, Tongue Tied, Rimmer Munchkin Song and Ace Rimmer Theme. And it’s superb. Quite possibly the second best video ever to be recorded in a school sports hall.

Despite the last twelve months bringing the biggest DJ attendance for a decade, an unexpected level of press coverage for BtE and some really quite phenomenal viewing figures, you still don’t always realise just how widespread Dwarf’s appeal and influence is. There was a time when it felt like there were just a handful of us left, but when you see things like Danny appearing on Soccer AM and being greeted by a load of Leeds fans singing “there’s only one Duane Dibbley”, you know you’re not alone. And that’s fucking Soccer AM.

But this orchestra video really is heartwarming. It’s not just the great renditions of the tunes and the skillful way they’ve been comped together. It’s seeing a great big group of people – some of whom must be a decade younger than the show itself – celebrating an aspect of Red Dwarf on such an epic scale. My heartiest thanks and congratulations to all involved.

Also thanks to p2p for posting this on our forum. You can comment here or there.

I still can’t get over how utterly great this is. I played in the school band, and I remember there was really only one song that we all loved playing and we played it well. The guy who organised this clearly understands how to teach music – by picking the right scores for the right students. Bravo.

Woodwinds is correct. And you’re probably right, the arrangement was most likely written to accommodate instruments that weren’t in the original score.

My son and I were talking about the acoustics of the gym(?) they were playing in. My kids’ school always has their concerts in the gym (for lack of a larger facility), and the sound quality usually is horrible, which doesn’t make for ideal sound recordings. While the sound wasn’t too bad for the video, I imagine they sounded terrific in person.

We recently saw my son play in his university’s band in the music hall. It made me appreciate how much I miss playing myself. :(

Okay this is just a thought, and one I’m having late at night and after a couple of pints and a gig, but do you think we could possible tempt Mr Steadman and his orchestra into an learning more Red Dwarf (or just general Sci-fi) arrangements and some kind of night being held where we could pay to come along and hear this kind of thing in person. A sort of Red Dwarf proms if you will.

This teacher understands how to enthuse kids – teach them stuff that’s more relevant. My music lessons were always classical music. Don’t get me wrong as a 20 something I understand the history and wonder of some of these pieces but back when I was 14 it would have been more fun to tear apart the music of Verve, Blur, Catatonia or Red Dwarf. Make it interesting to kids and they’ll learn a lot more. It’s also better for the parents who have to come and listen to the recitals.

There’s some great music coming out of Dr Who right now, throw in Red Dwarf & even TV/film scores from the likes of Elfman & Williams and I reckon you could really get more kids into studying music – who knows might liberate us of the knuckle draggers that think music is purely a product of reality TV shows.

Fantastic! THIS Is what I was expecting when the Red Dwarf Premiere for the suite was at the Manchester Sci-Fi night thing I attended a few years back. I think Im right In saying all they performed was the main themes, not tounge tied, ace rimmer and bloody munchkins! Bloody brilliant.